Giant African Land Snails: Achatina Achatina

This snail, also called the â€˜Tiger Snailâ€™ and the â€˜Giant Ghana Snailâ€™ is the largest land snail in the world. Due to its vast size of an average 18-20cm shell length, this species is very popular for pets. A shell length for this snail can easily exceed 30cm, with an average diameter of about 9cm!

Interestingly, the Achatina Achatina species can be a lot harder to breed than other snails, and is believed to have a three-year breeding cycle!

During the first year of the Achatina Achatina snailâ€™s life most of the growing will take place. For the next year or so these snails do not appear to grow at all, but they will continue to grow at a very slow rate after this.

The weight of one of these snails is around 600g, thatâ€™s over 21 ounces! They are best suited at a temperature of around 20 Â°C to 25 Â°C.

Achatina Achatina snails can live up to 10 years, although some of this time may be spent hibernating or aestivating. In captivity these snails generally live for around 5-7 years.

They have a pointed, conical-shaped shell, and some will have a spiral sculpture shape to it, (this is different from Achatina Fulica). When the snails are adults they will usually have no more than 7 or 8 whorls on their shell.

2 Responses

Allie - January 24, 2012

Hi, I cannot find anywhere any information on how big the tank needs to be for this particular breed. I am looking at getting a plastic fish tank, would 40cm across and 23 width be ok? I am struggling to find bigger without having to buy a really expensive glass tank. What is the smallest I can get for the breed and for one snail, and how much does it change for 2? Thanks!

Hi, I had three achatina achatina snails (Shelly, Felicity and Claire!) and the tank I used for them was 41.3 x 26 x29.8cm. Here’s a link to a post about their tank: http://www.madelinedyer.com/my-giant-african-land-snails%E2%80%99-new-home/
The tank I got was a fish tank of the ‘geo’ range, size ‘maxi’.
I would say that that sort of size you’ve looking to get should be the smallest that you should consider for one snail, however I’m not an expert. I kept three in the same tank of the above dimensions, however mine didn’t grow as big as expected.
An ideal size would be 12ins x 10ins x 12ins. Here’s another post about suitable homes for giant land snails: http://www.madelinedyer.com/how-to-make-a-suitable-home-for-your-giant-land-snail/
Remember the bigger the tank the better!